February 21, 2014

This season, I proudly declare as the season of offence for Miss Clumsy.

It all started with a comment to a friend who was going to take part in a music festival. Clumsy as usual had no idea about the terms used in the music scene, and called the prestigious festival a ‘competition’. The friend was hurt. How could she say that? It is a derogatory term, a lowly word. Only beginners took part in competitions, not the established. Lesson learnt. Competition is a bad word. Taboo.

Second and a more serious one was on a professional scene. Clumsy asked for the interview of a musician, a veteran. She met him once and exchanged jokes with him and decided he is now a friend. So when he emailed if the interview could be at 8am, she replied happily ‘oh i never wake up at 8, how about 11?’ The man, the veteran was offended. Senior journalists came at 7:30 but little Miss Clumsy over here had a bad attitude. He wrote a sensible but offended mail. She explained, she wrote ‘she is ok with any time, only asked a friendly question’, but too late for amends. Lesson learnt, do not be friendly in a professional scene.

Third is the most innocent situation. Poor Clumsy interviewed a man, let’s call him ‘Abc’ and remembered a song with that name. She asked if everyone sang that to him. And he got offended. He thought she made up that song to mock at him. Lesson learnt again. Never mention songs. In fact no words at all would be a good idea.

It never ends. There are more, but better know when to stop. What if my blog now offends me?